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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
would not have proved themselves unworthy to bear a part in the work
of God.”
Thus doubts arise in regard to the light that God has given. “That
which can be said of men under certain circumstances cannot be said
of them under other circumstances. Men are weak in moral power and
so supremely selfish, so self-sufficient, and so easily puffed up with
vain conceit, that God cannot work in connection with them, and they
are left to move like blind men and to manifest so great weakness and
folly that many are astonished that such individuals should ever have
been accepted and acknowledged as worthy of having any connection
with God’s work. This is just what Satan designed. This was his object
from the time he first specially tempted them to reproach the cause of
God and to cast reflections upon the Testimonies. Had they remained
where their influence would not have been specially felt upon the cause
of God, Satan would not have beset them so fiercely, for he could not
have accomplished his purpose by using them as his instruments to do
a special work.” [
Testimonies for the Church 3:469, 470
(1875).]
[671]
To be Judged by their Fruits
Let the Testimonies be judged by their fruits. What is the spirit
of their teaching? What has been the result of their influence? “All
who desire to do so can acquaint themselves with the fruits of these
visions. For seventeen years God has seen fit to let them survive and
strengthen against the opposition of Satan’s forces and the influence
of human agencies that have aided Satan in his work.” [
Testimonies
for the Church 1:330
(1862).]
“God is either teaching His church, reproving their wrongs and
strengthening their faith, or He is not. This work is of God, or it is not.
God does nothing in partnership with Satan. My work ... bears the
stamp of God or the stamp of the enemy. There is no halfway work in
the matter. The Testimonies are of the Spirit of God, or of the devil.”
[
Testimonies for the Church 4:230
.]
As the Lord has manifested Himself through the spirit of prophecy,
past, present, and future have passed before me. I have been shown
faces that I had never seen, and years afterward I knew them when
I saw them. I have been aroused from my sleep with a vivid sense
of subjects previously presented to my mind; and I have written, at